Guilford Freight in Peabody Square, Peabody, MA

Last Friday, my brother and I were blessed with a rare and possibly fleeting opportunity to film Pan Am Railways' Maine Central EMD GP40 #319 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Sadly, aside from the MBTA's Newburyport/Rockport Line, virtually all of the train tracks in the North Shore area have been abandoned for at least fifteen years. The tracks you see in this video are the remnants of the Salem and Lowell, Essex, and South Reading Branch Railroads, and, as you can see, they're barely a step above being abandoned themselves. These tracks see an average of one locomotive every one to two weeks, as the only local customers are Eastman Gelatine Corporation and Univar USA. There is so little activity on this stretch of track that even some of the locals assume they're abandoned or exempt: there have been several recent incidents where things like trucks and dumpsters have been left on the track.

Unfortunately, abandonment may lie in this branch line's future, as the Eastman Gelatine compound is changing hands sometime in January, and it's been speculated that the entire operation will be consolidated and moved to upstate New York, leaving PAR with a even further diminished branch line that they're already not too enthusiastic about maintaining. I hope that doesn't end up being the case, but we'll just have to see what happens.

On a positive note, the MBTA is considering an extension of their Newburyport/Rockport Line that would utilize this right of way.

Thanks for watching, and please subscribe! Shot with an Apple iPhone 4.

Видео Guilford Freight in Peabody Square, Peabody, MA канала Signal Hill Productions